Saturday, March 03, 2012

So yesterday was the big day. Thursday night at about 8 p.m. we locked poor Inkwell in the upstairs bathroom, making sure there was nothing to eat there. I put some toys in with him, and the little cat condo I bought for him so he had somewhere to curl up. Then I left him there, meowing in confusion, to spend the night in isolation from any possible scraps of food he might find.

Friday morning he was up and meowing early, especially when he heard us moving about. I only went in long enough to make sure he had water in his dish, then left him there. Poor thing was probably pretty angry with me at that point.

Just before 8 a.m. I went in and got him in his travel box. He only meowed a few times, clearly perplexed and clearly disturbed, but apparently resigned to his fate. I brought him into the vet's office and, admittedly, had a bit of a hard time letting go. I was told I could call around 10:30 a.m. to find out how he'd done.

Work held little interest for me. I've clearly bonded with Inky enough that I was deeply worried for him. I called at 10:30 only to learn he hadn't gone under the knife yet. Eep.

Just after noon I got a call. There was a problem. They were working on him, but one of his... er... kitten balls had not descended, meaning the neutering process might require putting him out completely and opening him up like a spay. Yikes. $40 more for the process, would I approve it? Sighing deeply, I agreed, then I waited to hear.

The next call went to my Google Voice, and I'm still amused by Google's transcription of it:

"I just want to let you know some good news that the doctor was able to reach that test to call through the regular incision and Let's grow dumb. So it was just the regular cat and we didn't have to do anything in the afternoon."

I think 'test to call' should be obvious, 'and Let's grow dumb' is 'in the scrotum'. It also missed a word in the second sentence after 'cat'... 'neuter' and 'anything in the afternoon' was 'anything in the abdomen'.

Relieved, I went about my day... which involved a UFO report, mystery donuts, peanut butter fudge, a phone call I'd been anticipating for three weeks and baby goats with senior citizens.

I got to the vet late in the afternoon, and was shown how to clip a cat's claws without harming the cat. I just need to get the clippers that I put on Inkwell's Wishlist. Then I took the little guy home to see how he reacted.

When I lifted him out of the carrier and put him on the floor of his own home, he stumbled a little, walked in a circle to make sure the sight was real, then walked (a little bow-legged in the back legs) over to his food dish and looked up at me. As I hadn't been told not to feed him, I went ahead and gave him a portion of food. Certainly no loss of appetite!

He then stumbled over to the litter box to do some business, then over to the sliding glass door. He spent some time gazing out into the back yard while making the tiniest sounds imaginable. Almost squeaks, but more mournful.

He got bored of the sight after a bit and found his way to mommy's lap, where he curled up to sleep. He stayed near mommy for some time after that, not leaving except to get food. For once he didn't eat everything in his dish at once, which was good to see and worrying at the same time. He played a little, attacking his feather toy, and seemed close to normal.

After consulting with hubby-Eric, we decided to let him in the bedroom for the night so he could have comfort. He mostly behaved. Apparently he farted in Eric's face at some point, but he didn't wake mommy up until it was breakfast time. He has spent most of the morning in my lap, purring when he wakes up. He completely immobilized my left arm for nearly an hour while I watched TV and played on the internet.

He spent an hour curled up against my left arm, in various positions, this morning.

He's definitely not feeling 100%, but he's also not showing any significant signs of distress. He isn't licking his incision much, and while he's active, he hasn't gone completely nuts (so to speak). We'll just be paying attention to him as we go about our day, and hope he settles back into routine soon enough.